When diagnosing motor vehicle problems, scan tools (i.e., devices that interface with a vehicle's onboard computer system) are often used by technicians to retrieve one or more trouble codes concerning the vehicle being serviced, such that each trouble code received is indicative of a problem, symptom, or condition of the motor vehicle.
When addressing the individual problems associated with the retrieved trouble codes, technicians often rely upon printed technical manuals that show the various subsystems of the motor vehicle they are troubleshooting. These subsystems may include e.g., electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic and/or mechanical subsystems, and the technical manuals often include schematic diagrams of these various subsystems.
Unfortunately, these printed schematic diagrams are typically difficult to follow, as one or more complete subsystems are often included within a single schematic diagram. Additionally, while these printed schematic diagrams commonly contain considerable high-level information (e.g., wiring harness information and generalized component symbols), they are often lacking with respect to low-level information (e.g., component-specific information, photographs, and location information), as this additional low-level information typically makes the schematic diagrams appear overly crowded.
Alternatively or additionally, computer-based data systems may be used to retrieve computer-based trouble shooting information (i.e., electrical, pneumatic, hydraulic and/or mechanical schematic diagrams). However, these computer-based data systems tend to be stand-alone systems that are not integrated with e.g., the scan tool used to diagnose the motor vehicle, thus requiring the technician to maintain multiple systems and manually enter (into the computer-based data system) the data that was retrieved by the scan tool.